The embodiments herein relate generally to keyboards for mobile electronic devices.
Mobile electronic devices such as smartphones and tablets are becoming increasingly popular. These devices include a display and a keyboard on the front face of the device. The keyboard may be a physical keypad with raised buttons or a touchscreen keypad on the display of the device. In either case, the physical keypad or touchscreen keypad on the front display limits the screen area that can display visual content to the user such as webpages, emails, SMS messages, games, or the like. In some instances, touchscreen keypads take approximately 40 percent of the electronic device's display. This is disadvantageous because a smaller screen area to display content reduces the user's productivity when performing a task. Further, keyboards affixed to the front of the device are primarily designed to be used with the user's thumbs instead of all fingers. This reduces the user's typing efficiency.
One way of increasing the display area of an electronic device is to place the keyboard on the rear face of the device. U.S. Patent Application Publications 2003/0117374A1, 2005/0104855A1, 2007/0201931A1, 2007/0268261A1, 2008/0285214A1 and 2008/0145127 disclose back-typing computer keyboards. However, these keyboards are disadvantageous because the keys are packed within a rectangular area. This makes them difficult to use because the keys are not positioned near the user's natural resting finger position. U.S. Pat. No. 8,649,164B1 discloses a rearward facing keyboard for mobile computing devices comprising two partial key fields wherein each key field comprises rows of keys that form concentric arcs resembling a quarter slice of a circle. The computing device is designed to be held between the user's thumbs on the front of the device and remaining fingers on the back of the device. This eliminates the user's thumbs for typing and restricts the flexibility of the remaining fingers. This results in inefficient and inaccurate typing, and may cause the user to suffer finger fatigue and/or strain.
As such, there is a need in the industry for a rear-facing keyboard for mobile electronic devices that enables a user to use all ten fingers when typing, which effectively enhances typing efficiency and accuracy while reducing user fatigue.